how to say 'i do' in spanish

I know it's been painful, dear reader, but my journey now brings us to the wedding ceremony (finally). As we learned earlier in the day, the ceremony would be entirely in Spanish. We weren't too concerned, as the wedding is truly about the bride and groom, and we were sure we could follow along. However, turns out this was a problem for the groom - he had no idea how to say "I do" in Spanish. Everyone thought this was hilarious, I mean, this guy grew up speaking Spanish exclusively at home and among his friends. As he would explain, though, he knew how to say "I do," but he wasn't sure how to say it appropriately in the context of the ceremony.

As is customary with most weddings, the invites and the couple's wedding website were very clear about the schedule, "ceremony starts at 5:30pm sharp." Well, that certainly wasn't the case as the husband rushed me along and we arrived a bit late to find we were the only ones. I mean, the coordinator wasn't even present! So much for being punctual.

We didn't have to hang around too long before our friends showed up. As we chatted one of them casually mentioned that they didn't think the wedding would start for awhile, not due to the lack of coordinator, but due to the fact that (as they pointed out from where we were standing), the groom and his bridal party were hanging out in undershirts on their balcony. Oy...

Eventually the coordinator made an appearance along with these guys who entertained us until the wedding started - SO awesome.

They brought some dancers too.

The ceremony started about 20 minutes later. Remember the all-Spanish ceremony? Well, it wasn't really a problem for us guests because we couldn't hear anything. Everyone was mic-d up, but there was an uninvited guest that made a big showing, THE WIND. I kid you not, it was CRAZY WINDY.

You can't really tell in the picture below, but one of the bridesmaids is holding the bride's veil to the ground (out of the picture, I try not to take unflattering photos as I would wish the same for pictures of me).

Here's a view of the ocean during the ceremony. See the palm tree and white caps on the water? Told you it was windy.

As the ceremony ended we were in for another treat. The band kicked up again and the dancers lined the walkway with sparklers.

It was really neat and the perfect segue into the awesome party that would follow.

And the "I do"? Not a problem, I'm pretty sure they're married. : )